Comprehending Passions

Public speaking dominated French politics in the 16th century. The speeches delivered before the king, during the meetings of representative institutions, or in courts of law were carefully prepared and rehearsed. Although oratorical techniques were personalised, rhetoric was an art form that was learnt and practised. It therefore rested on a shared understanding of the power of the word as a polemical and redemptive instrument, alternately unleashing and controlling passions. In his treatise De l'éloquence françoise, Guillaume Du Vair explained how eloquence provided an understanding of group psychology and laid out a governing matrix for the passions. This chapter also examines moral philosophy in the 16th century, lectures at the Palace Academy of Henry III and what they told about the passions, the effects of the civil wars on political authority and the emphasis upon eloquence as a means to win over people's hearts and minds and reinforce the authority of the royal state, and the Projet d'Éloquence Royale.

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